I've seen Governor Walls going to Congress and then becoming Governor.
I see the guy that was a first sergeant.
I see a guy that's full of energy, always busy, and like he says, you get enough time
to sleep when you're dead.
I first met Governor Walls and Congressman Walls when I was transition out of the Marine
Corps, going back to school.
He really wanted to know what the experience was of those that were actually using the
GI Bill and how it could be improved.
It seemed to be a continuation of focus on improving the lives of veterans.
Governor Walls and our unit always would say his catchphrase was, we'll get it done.
And we always did.
The way I've seen him carry himself over the years in Congress and the way he works for
veterans, there's no excuse making, there's no scapegoating, it's just accomplished the
mission.
When Governor Walls has been that way and always will be that way.
Having Governor Walls on the House of Veterans Affairs Committee was instrumental in getting
the post-9-11 GI Bill not only even introduced, but also passed.
When Governor Walls wants to change, it'll happen.
Back to the guard, we'll get it done.
Please welcome EGOT winning multi-platinum artist and activist John Legend and Queen
of Percussion, Sheila E.
He's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great
guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great
guy, he's going to be a good guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great
guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a good
guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a
good guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a
nice guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a great guy, he's going to be a
Yay!
Chibany everybody!
Thorvulus Drops!
For me!
That was incredible, I just want to say I feel so motivated after tonight.
It's like never been more clear that if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are elected this November,
they're going to protect our freedoms, the freedom to read whatever books you want.
The freedom to work one job and afford your rent, and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will
protect your freedom to start a family on your own terms.
And if you ask me, that is something worth fighting for, so guys, let's do it.
It's time.
Let's nominate the next vice president of the United States, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz,
and to take us there, and to take us there, please welcome to the stage Minnesota Senator
Amy Klobuchar.
Okay, that was a warm-up act.
On behalf of the great state of Minnesota, where purple rains, I stand before you in
support of our next vice president, Tim Walz.
In Minnesota, we trust a coach who turned a team that was 0 and 27 into state champions.
In Minnesota, we trust a hunter who has stood in a deer stand in 10 degree weather.
In Minnesota, we trust a candidate who has made a viral video on how to change a burnt
out headlight.
And I know we aren't alone, but in Minnesota, we love a dad-in-clad.
So Tim and I go way back.
He taught high school right down the road from where my husband John grew up.
My mother-in-law even brought him and Gwen a Parmesan chicken dinner when their son
was born.
That's what we do in America.
We look out for our neighbors.
Tim has been doing that his whole life on the farm and in the factory with his students
and his fellow service members.
And the truth is, that matters.
Who better to take on the price of gas than a guy who could pull over to help change
your tire?
Who better to serve our nation than a guy who has served in uniform?
Who better to find common ground than a guy with Midwestern common sense?
A former football coach knows how to level the playing field and a former public school
teacher knows how to school the likes of JD Vance.
What you've done with your life matters and what you do with power matters too.
Tim has delivered paid leave, school lunches, and the biggest tax cut in Minnesota history.
A Democrat from a red district in a purple state, Tim has brought Minnesota together.
And together with Vice President Kamala Harris, I know he will do the same for our nation.
America, there is so much that we share, so much that connects us.
Way up north in Minnesota, out of Lake Itasca, flows the Mississippi River.
It starts small and it grows wider.
It flows down to Wisconsin.
It goes down to Iowa.
It goes down to Illinois and to Missouri.
It goes to Kentucky and Tennessee.
It goes to Arkansas and it goes way down to Mississippi and then it goes all the way
down to New Orleans, Louisiana, where the spirit of our nation's resilience abounds.
So let us commit here and now to cross the river of our divides to get to a higher ground
and let us join together to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walls.
Please welcome Ben Inghman from Minnesota.
Tim Walls is the kind of guy you can count on to push you out of a snowbank.
I know this because Tim Walls has pushed me out of a snowbank.
I grew up next door to the walls in Mankato.
Mr. Walls was also my geography teacher and my coach, not for high school football
but for seventh grade basketball and track.
So what was a high school football coach doing, coaching seventh grade basketball and track?
Well, there was a kid in the high school who couldn't afford to pay for lunch and he ran
up a lot of debt and Tim and Gwen decided they'd help pay it off.
They started calling around the district to see if there were any positions they could
fill to make a little extra money and that's how he wound up coaching us seventh graders.
That's right.
Coach Walls got us excited about what we might achieve together.
He believed in us and he helped us believe in each other and his leadership stuck.
That track team went on to win a state title just like the football team.
That's right.
Speaking of which, come on out, Scarlett.
Yeah.
You know, all this got me thinking about the kinds of leaders we need.
We want the people in charge to be genuine, compassionate and trustworthy.
The thing is, there are people in our neighborhoods who fit this description.
The kind of people who display quiet leadership by helping kids pay for their lunches, by
bringing teams together to believe in each other.
And when we're stuck in the snow, they push us out.
Well, in my neighborhood, we always wish that people like that would run for office.
Well, in my neighborhood, someone like that did run for office and he's going to be a
wonderful vice president.
Thanks very much.
Out here in the wide, open spaces, we are reminded of the values we share.
A commitment to community, country, and standing up for what's right.
Tim Walz grew up in a small town in Nebraska, where he spent summers working the family
farm.
There were just 24 students in his graduating class.
His dad served during the Korean War and that meant a lot to Tim.
So he enlisted right after his 17th birthday and served 24 years in the National Guard,
rising to command sergeant major.
Tim went to college on the GI Bill and became a social studies teacher.
That's where Tim and I met.
We shared a classroom with a divider right down the middle.
His classroom was a lot louder than mine, but I could hear how engaged his students were.
Tim taught for over 15 years and he coached football, helping lead the team to a state
championship after zero wins just a few years before.
Tim taught them how to believe in themselves and that we're all in this together.
When one of our students started the school's Gay Straight Alliance, Tim agreed to serve
as faculty advisor because he knew how impactful it would be to have a football coach involved.
He inspired his students and he changed lives.
He is just so joyful in everything that he does, but I said also standing up for, you
know, what he believes to be right, stands up to bullies.
Then Tim's students inspired him to run for Congress in Southern Minnesota.
Tim spent a lot of time working with Republicans, fighting to help farmers and expanding veterans'
benefits.
Whether it was in Congress or as governor, his focus has always been, helping working
people like those he grew up with.
That's why he fought for the largest tax cut in Minnesota state history.
Tim Walz was there for small businesses like ours.
With the urging of governor Walz, we were able to pass the Alex Smith Insulin Affordability
Act and in his save lives in Minnesota.
With Tim as governor, Minnesota is one of the best places to raise a family and one
of the best states for business.
Tim's a lifelong hunter and gun owner.
But after the Sandy Hook school shooting, he knew that we had to do something.
So he's fought for background checks and red flag laws.
But of all the things he's done, Tim loves being a dad.
We struggled to have kids.
And fertility treatments made it possible.
There's a reason our daughter is named Hope.
Hope and Gus mean the world to us.
Governor Walz making good on a promise to his son and family yesterday by getting them
a puppy.
Then we're going to go get some food.
Corn dog.
I'm vegetarian.
Turkey then.
Turkey's meat.
Not an Minnesota turkey special.
He's as at home on a farm, a fishing boat, a football field or a factory floor as he
is on the floor of Congress.
Tim's commitment to service all comes back to the values we grew up with.
Love your country.
Help your neighbor and fight for what's right.
Because that's what America is all about.
Two middle-class kids, one a daughter of Oakland, California, the other, a son of the
Nebraska Plains only in America.
Is it possible for them together to make it all the way to the White House?
Please welcome the Democratic nominee for Vice President, Governor Tim Walz.
Thank you.
Wow.
Well, thank you.
Thank you, first of all, Vice President Harris.
Thanks for putting your trust in me and for inviting me to be part of this incredible
campaign.
And a thank you to President Joe Biden for four years of strong historic leadership.
It's the honor of my life to accept your nomination for Vice President of the United
States.
We're all here tonight for one beautiful, simple reason.
We love this country.
So thank you to all of you here in Chicago and all of you watching at home tonight.
Thank you for your passion, thank you for your determination, and most of all, thank
you for bringing the joy to this fight.
Now, I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people.
I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale.
But I'll tell you what, growing up in a small town like that, you'll learn how to take care
of each other.
That family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do,
they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors.
And you look out for them, and they look out for you.
Everybody belongs, and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.
For me, it was serving in the Army National Guard.
I joined up two days after my 17th birthday, and I proudly wore our nation's uniform for
24 years.
My dad, a Korean War-era Army veteran, died of lung cancer a couple years later.
He left behind a mountain of medical debt.
Thank God for Social Security survivor benefits.
And thank God for the GI Bill that allowed my dad and me to go to college, and millions
of other Americans.
Eventually, like the rest of my family, I fell in love with teaching.
Three out of four of us married teachers.
I wound up teaching social studies and coaching football at Mankato West High School.
Go Scarlett's!
We ran a 44 defense.
We played through to the whistle on every single play, and we even won a state championship.
Over-closed-the-yearbook people, but it was those players and my students who inspired
me to run for Congress.
They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them a commitment to the common good, an
understanding that we're all in this together, and the belief that a single person can make
a real difference for their neighbors.
So there I was, a 40-something high school teacher with little kids, zero political experience,
and no money running in a deep red district.
But you know what?
Never underestimate a public school teacher.
Never.
I represented my neighbors in Congress for 12 years, and I learned an awful lot.
I learned how to work across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economies and
taking care of veterans, and I learned how to compromise without compromising my values.
Then I came back to serve as governor, and we got right to work making a difference in
our neighbors' lives.
We cut taxes for the middle class.
We passed paid family and medical leave.
We invested in fighting crime and affordable housing.
We cut the cost of prescription drugs and helped people escape the kind of medical debt
that nearly sank my family.
And we made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day.
So while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from
ours.
We also protected reproductive freedom because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and
the personal choices they make.
And even if we wouldn't make those same choices for ourselves, we've got a golden rule.
Mind your own damn business.
And that includes IVF and fertility treatments.
This is personal for Gwen and I.
If you've never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you you know somebody
who has.
And I can remember praying each night for a phone call.
The pit in your stomach when the phone had rang and the absolute agony when we heard
the treatments hadn't worked.
It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments.
And when our daughter was born, we named her hope.
Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you are my entire world and I love you.
I'm letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part about what this
election is about.
Freedom.
When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to
invade your doctor's office.
Corporations, free to pollute your air and water.
The banks, free to take advantage of customers.
But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for
yourself and the people that you love.
Freedom to make your own health care decisions.
And yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in
the hall.
Look, I know guns.
I'm a veteran.
I'm a hunter and I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress and I got the
trophies to prove it.
But I'm also a dad.
I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe our first responsibility is to keep
our kids safe.
That's what this is all about.
The responsibility we have to our kids, to each other and to the future that we're building
together in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want.
But not everyone has that same sense of responsibility.
Some folks just don't understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.
Take Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying
to live their lives.
They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this.
But look, I coach high school football long enough to know and trust me on this.
When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they're going to use it.
And we know if these guys get back in the White House, they'll start jacking up the
costs on the middle class.
They'll repeal the Affordable Care Act.
They'll gut Social Security and Medicare.
And they will ban abortion across this country with or without Congress.
Here's the thing, it's an agenda nobody asked for.
It's a agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us.
And it's an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need.
Is it weird?
Absolutely.
But it's all so wrong.
And it's dangerous.
It's not just me saying so.
It's Trump's own people.
They were with him for four years.
They're warning us that the next four years will be much, much worse.
You know, when I was teaching every year, we'd elect a student body president.
And you know what?
Those teenagers could teach Donald Trump a hell of a lot about what a leader is.
Leaders don't spend all day insulting people and blaming others.
Leaders do the work.
So I don't know about you.
I'm ready to turn the page on these guys.
So go ahead.
Say it with me.
We're not going back.
We've got something better to offer the American people.
It starts with our candidate, Kamala Harris.
From her first day as a prosecutor, as a district attorney, as an attorney general,
as a United States senator, and then our vice president, she's fought on the side of the
American people.
She's taken on the predecessors and fraudsters.
She's taken down the transnational gangs, and she stood up to powerful corporate interests.
She has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives.
And she's always done it with energy, with passion, and with joy.
Folks, we've got a chance to make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States.
But I think we owe it to the American people to tell them exactly what she'd do as president
before we ask them for their votes.
So here, this is the part, clip and save it and send it to your undecided relatives
so they know.
If you're a middle class family or a family trying to get into the middle class, Kamala
Harris is going to cut your taxes.
If you're getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take
on big pharma.
If you're hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable.
And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom
to live the life that you want to lead.
Because that's what we want for ourselves and it's what we want for our neighbors.
You know you might not know it, but I haven't given a lot of big speeches like this.
But I have given a lot of pep talks.
So let me finish with this team.
It's the fourth quarter.
We're down a field goal, but we're on offense and we've got the ball.
We're driving down the field.
And boy, do we have the right team, Kamala Harris is top, Kamala Harris is experienced
and Kamala Harris is ready.
Our job, our job, our job, our job for everyone watching is to get in the trenches and do
the blocking and tackling.
One inch at a time, one yard at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a
time, one five dollar donation at a time.
Look, we got 76 days.
That's nothing.
There'll be time to sleep when you're dead.
We're going to leave it on the field.
That's how we'll keep moving forward.
That's how we'll turn the page on Donald Trump.
That's how we'll build a country where workers come first.
Healthcare and housing are human rights.
And the government stays the hell out of your bedroom.
That's how we make America a place where no child is left hungry, where no community
is left behind, where nobody gets told they don't belong.
That's how we're going to fight.
And as the next President of the United States always says, when we fight, when we fight,
when we fight, thank you.
God bless.
Amen.
Ah,
hl.
Growing up on the block with Mammy Teal, serving alongside CTU President Stacey Davis Gates,
walking past the childhood home of Senator Carol Mosley-Brons, I know that women from
the 6th ward on the south side of Chicago have changed the world.
From the eve of the first black woman receiving nomination for the President of the United
States, God, we are ready to fight for freedoms.
Division is the tool of the insecure.
Hatred is a misunderstanding of love.
Help us to come together and paint a brighter future, the one that Shirley Chisholm Jim
Dove, Maya Angelou spoke of, and let there be peace tonight.
Peace in Palestine.
Peace for Palestinians.
Peace for Israelis.
When we come together, we win.
When we serve together, we change lives.
Tonight, by faith, we rise together.
Tonight, by faith, we work together.
Tonight, by faith, we get information together.
We will not wait until November, but by faith, we will shout in victory tonight.
As a Hindu, a Sikh, and an Angelino coming from Tongva lands, I invite you to pray
or reflect.
In Sikhi, Waheguru is nirbo and nirve, the one without fear and without hatred.
If the divine possesses these qualities with making the universe, then we are responsible
to achieve equity with those same values.
As a Hindu, I am reminded that divisiveness is a choice because our dharam, our duty,
is towards all of humanity and nature.
We are working towards riding the wrongs of our past and preventing a future harm, paving
a path for restoration we deserve.
May justice and peace evolve from their status as empty words to become calls to action against
the status quo of oppression.
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Nana Kanam, Chardikalath, Teri Parnesar, Patatapala.
All right, for those of you that are left, I've got a question.
Is there a motion to recess our convention?
Oh, you guys are moving me.
Is there a second?
Okay, before I ask for the final vote, I can't, I don't have my phone.
I can't do a selfie.
Some people are asking me for a selfie.
All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed say nay.
In the eyes of the chair, the eyes have it.
We are now officially recessed until 5.30 p.m. tomorrow.
Folks, it's closing time.
I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here.
I love you.